Card games are widely played by adults, young adults, teenagers and children. They form a very important part of pastime activities, providing recreation and amusement for many people.
While such games are fun and entertaining, they often go beyond that by being interesting, challenging, stimulating and educational.
This invention relates generally to card games for simulating the game of bowling. More particularly but not by way of limitation, this invention relates to a card game apparatus for simulating a game of bowling and to method of playing such a game apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,982 issued Oct. 15, 1985 to Mary L. Gaines and Charles J. Gaines describes a special deck of cards and scoring apparatus that simulates the game of golf.
According to the disclosure, the golf game is simulated by dealing a hand of cards to each player and by the process of drawing and discarding, each player works to improve their hand in order to gain an advantage over the opponents. The special golf cards are different from those of this invention, but the patent has been cited to illustrate that special decks of cards have been utilized in games heretofore.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,616 issued Dec. 27, 1988 to Henry R. Sanon utilizes a plurality of decks of cards to simulate the game of tennis. This also is a different sporting event being simulated and is cited merely to show that the use of cards to simulate sporting games is widespread.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,426 issued Feb. 26, 1985 to John R. Seitz illustrates a card game that simulates the game of bowling. It utilizes tokens, a set of special dice, a plurality of bowler cards and a set of strike, spare and split reference boards. The game process requires the rolling of the dice then reference a particular bowler card indicating specific indicia. The game player then references corresponding strike and spare boards which list result indicia representing a score that the bowler would probably obtain based on average performance.
Games where the player must continually reference scoring boards breaks up the flow and inhibits the continuity of the game. Players must stop to shuffle through the reference boards requiring the rest of the players to sit and wait.
Whenever a plurality of reference boards filled with specific indicia are used to indicate score, errors are often made in reference, changing the outcome of the game.
Reference boards with many rows of numbers spread over a wide area are very difficult to read.
Games where dice are thrown and reference boards are used in conjunction with the dice indicia detract from the players control of the game outcome. There is no decision making process, only the chance results of the dice.
In my invention the player holds an exposed hand of cards that can be immediately evaluated and played from. The flow is smooth and consistant.
My invention has the point value clearly marked on each card allowing the player to evaluate the scoring impact immediately.
The method of play of the cards in my invention allows all players to share in the reading and if the player and scorer have difficulity with accuracy, the other players can assist in making corrections immediately.
The method of playing my invention allows for a decision making process at every card played, giving the player control of the game. The draw of replacement cards allows for the excitement of chance to play a part in the game.